How KM is Transforming Into Innovation Management
Today, clients want to “Capture” great ideas, and that is why Project Teams are called to ensure each Idea is tracked and showcased. In enabling Innovation Day as a KMer I have partnered with Six Sigma and other Agile Experts and created Systemic processes around 100’s of ideas that were showcased during Innovation Day. The real challenge is if the client likes the idea, he has to really ask so what is the Next One that connects to putting it into Action.
An Idea Portal is a Centre Stage Tool that enables everyone to Collaborate and Share their Information. The rules are simple:
Step 1: Collect and Track Each Idea.
Step 2: Estimate the Costs and Benefits of Each Idea.
Step 3: Measure the Implementation of Each Idea.
Step 4: Calculate the Added Value of Each Idea.
Step 5: Determine the Innovation Rate Across the Organization
The ideal situation is to ensure the Knowledge Base has a Tracking tool that everyone uses. It rarely happens as Team Leaders, Project Managers, Project Lead and their teams are busy with many actions during their work week. So, for achieving Step-1 we used a Visual Board and made sure through a Daily Huddle everyone Shared their learnings.
During the Sharing, it was the responsibility of the Scrum Master to evaluate the Novelty of the Lessons Learned and guide the team to engage in a Discussion, aligning some of those Learnings translate into possibilities for Improved processes aligned to Better Ways of Working. So, the Top Improvement Areas are aligned to the Visual Dashboard and have Process Owners assigned who could take Ownership for the Insight.
As the daily huddle continues, these Process Owners are taught through Coaching with their Team Leads, to align the Idea to one area of Client Delivery Themes that could be automated; improved through lean / six sigma or better new process defined that called for rationale investment. Here is where Creative KM helps…
During the client visits, the Team Leads presented the best Improvements to the Client Sponsor, and it is their responsibility to Select those who can truly be taken for a Nomination to the Portfolio Client Leaders.
On Innovation Day the Best Awarded Ideas are represented with a clear Action Plan and Ownership assigned from both sides for a Proof of Concept and then measured for Business Value. Some of these translate into newly automated processes that save X amount of time, some save cost and other quality.
It is important for these rewarded Ideas to go back into the Knowledge Base and be looked at as Best Practices and those SMEs who aided in the creation – evaluation – presentation / defense and implementation be seen as one Expert Team.
Now we can see how an Idea Portal that starts as a tracking mechanism becomes a Collaborative Portal where both Clients and Service Providers aid in Innovation Management. It involves elevating existing ways of working and investing in celebrating Sharing of Insights into Innovative Ideas. The ultimate goal is to ensure the Expert Network is elevating Individual Learning into Team Experts, who are available to Coach others and Knowledge Build for ensuring the Organizational is winning through some of these becoming Client IPs and patents.
It is important that such ‘in-time Idea’ Portals lead to Measuring Continuous Improvements and hence Organizational KPIs around Innovation are important as below.
- Number of new ideas proposed
- Proportion of ideas selected for implementation
- Revenue generated from new ideas
- Percentage of sales from new products
- Customer satisfaction with new products
- Speed to market
- Lessons learned
Source: https://ideadrop.co/innovation-management/how-to-measure-innovation/
So, have you implemented your Idea Portal and are measuring the ROI around Business Strategy?
In-Summary
Innovation Management is not new to Knowledge Management Professionals. It is how we enable our teams and support them through planning the Innovation Day or other forums that truly gets Community to come forward and Ideate.
It is important that we drive Engagement through participation where everyone feels they are being rewarded and a Visual Dashboard is a great start. It is important that through practices like a Daily Huddle we engage Experts like a Scrum Master and continue to Capture Ideas in an idea Portal. The highest contribution is enabling those sharing these Ideas to apply their minds as Process Owners and defend their Solutioning Mindset; and for this we need Team Leads trained in Six Sigma, Lean etc to align their random theories to Structured Thinking that are seen as Measured ways of Implementing an idea.
Our role today as Knowledge Management Professionals is to be an artist. We are called to all be Consultants and engage in many Creative KM Practices that can create a KM Culture enabling Expert Networks that drive Innovation. Through numerous KM Events and the Champion Networks we aid in sustaining these Creative workspaces and doing lot more leading to impacting Organizational Standards It is important that CXOs see KM as a game-changer and invest in truly creation of a KM Culture that supports Continuous Improvements aligned to Innovation Management.
Disclaimer: These are purely my own views and experiences as a seasoned KM partitioner in defining KM services aligned to organization strategy through design thinking.
About the Author: Michael Sequeira is an independent consultant based in the UK and is our Featured Guest Blogger. Mike is passionate about helping organizations discover how KM can be a key differentiator for their business, teams, and clients. If you would like to learn more about his background and get-in-touch you can connect with him on LinkedIn.